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Ticketmaster is a horrible company

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Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#91

Post by squozzer »

buildbuildbuild wrote: post #31

The unfortunate truth is that it is impossible for a live music fan to completely avoid Ticketmaster in 2017 without missing many of the best shows. They strongarm venues into exclusivity agreements: all phone and online tickets at those venue must be sold through Ticketmaster. Even walking up to buy a ticket at some box offices results in a venue using Ticketmaster as point of sale. Their parent company Live Nation…

Then the path to disruption is clear -- bypass the venues.

Hmmm, maybe this Internet thing might be useful after all, assuming you can set up a decent streaming service and avoid the pitfalls.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#92

Post by stoic »

brogrammernot wrote: post #16

They're also the worst company I've ever had a phone screen with. I remember being told it was with a member of the technical team, and it was a technical recruiter who asked me questions straight off of a paper that made no sense I hate having to use their service but they seem to be the best worst to use when it comes to selection. They screwed me a bit too when I bought a pair of pricey US Open tickets ($800+ tota…

TicketFly, EventBrite, Queue, and Front Gate Tickets sell probably 90% of the event tickets here in Austin. AFAIK, TM only handles the arena shows here (Cedar Park Center, Frank Erwin).

Disruption is out there, but as long as Live Nation/AEG owns the big venues where you can see Journey or Kanye or whatever popular thing, there will probably always be TM extracting their pound of flesh.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#93

Post by smallnamespace »

zdean wrote: post #87
jandrese wrote: post #13

That insurance scam is only reason #8382 not to use Ticketmaster. Of course there is one reason to use Ticketmaster: you often don't get a choice anymore. The Venue box office is a joke, and Ticketmaster has an exclusive agreement for the rest so it's either them or pay even more to a scalper. This is why I go to barely any shows anymore. The ones I do go to are at the one local venue that doesn't use Ticketmaster (W…

"It is a testament to our weak antitrust laws that Ticketmaster has been able to gouge the public for decades with no repercussions whatsoever." Genuinely interested to know what is keeping a nimble new startup from stepping in and blowing this up.

Ticketmaster either owns or has deals with all the venues. I wouldn't be surprised if all those deals specified exclusivity.

No venue will switch to a new entrant unless the new entrant can guarantee the same demand, so you have the normal chicken and egg program.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#94

Post by RRL »

parthdesai wrote: post #41

I wanted to buy tickets for MLS final in Toronto this year. General Sale was at 1pm. I log on at 1pm, site doesn't load. Keep refreshing and all tickets are sold by 1:01pm. And rows appear on stubhub at 1:20pm for ~$500 a ticket. I can fucking watch Real Madrid vs Barcelona (arguably the biggest soccer game in the world after CL final) for a ticket price cheaper than that. Fuck Ticketmaster.

Saw the same exact thing happen at OldChella.

  Ticket sale starts at 10am.  I enter line.  Sit in virtual line for 3.5 hours.  Get to the front of the line, the tickets I wanted were sold out (The $1700 GA tickets mind you).  

  Right below the 'sold out' button Ticketmaster has a 'Premium Tickets' CTA.  I click that.  The $1700 GA tickets are being scalped for $5,500 on Ticketmaster's partner sight.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#96

Post by Bartweiss »

peteforde wrote: post #66

Hey, first off: chillllll out. Choose your battles carefully. Ticketmaster is not a great company, but it's become a lot better than it used to be. Truth! Anyhow, you need to be aware that venues absolutely will charge a venue fee. Even purchasing tickets at my local club in Toronto from the front bar there is a 10% markup or $1 minimum, whatever is greater. You don't have to get tickets printed and mailed to you for…

I'm not sure any of this is accurate.

First: how has TM gotten better? Their fees have gotten higher, they merged with Live Nation to gain market control and raised prices, and they lost a class action suit but are still doing exactly what they were sued for the first time.

Not all venues charge a venue fee - some of my local theaters are fee-free at the box office, some aren't. (They all take a cut somewhere obviously, but some build it into ticket prices and some even extract all their profit by selling merch and food at the show. $10 beer is damn profitable.) TicketMaster's website explains that they're merely collecting these fees on behalf of venues, but after their merger with Live Nation they own many of those venues, so this is pretty misleading.

Virtual tickets work great, yes. Except that TM charges an "E-ticket convenience fee". And a "will call fee" if you try that. So if 100% of ticketing methods have a fee, it's just an extra cost dressed up as a choice.

And no, they aren't just absorbing hate: when they do promotion as Live Nation, own the venue as Live Nation, and sell me the tickets as TicketMaster, they making every choice not given to the band.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#97

Post by Clubber »

zdean wrote: post #87
jandrese wrote: post #13

That insurance scam is only reason #8382 not to use Ticketmaster. Of course there is one reason to use Ticketmaster: you often don't get a choice anymore. The Venue box office is a joke, and Ticketmaster has an exclusive agreement for the rest so it's either them or pay even more to a scalper. This is why I go to barely any shows anymore. The ones I do go to are at the one local venue that doesn't use Ticketmaster (W…

"It is a testament to our weak antitrust laws that Ticketmaster has been able to gouge the public for decades with no repercussions whatsoever." Genuinely interested to know what is keeping a nimble new startup from stepping in and blowing this up.

I would guess having exclusive agreements with almost everybody.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#98

Post by gpvos »

csydas wrote: post #51
jbverschoor wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever tried to get a ticket for something popular with TM?

To elaborate for the above commenter, ticket master sales for popular events often sell out within seconds of the sale starting as a swarm of bots attacks the site and buy up available tickets. It usually takes just a few minutes for ticket sales to go up on Craigslist or eBay. Users see just a blank page or ticket masters internal loading errors while scalping bots buy up tickets. I remember trying to get tickets fo…

So, if all tickets go to scalpers and no-one (including presumably the scalpers) can transfer a ticket, it must be that the venues remained empty. How is this a sustainable business for anyone?

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#99

Post by robbrown451 »

codazoda wrote: post #88

Listen, I'm no fan of Ticketmaster but you should be very careful in your wording of a piece like this. Although clearly opinion, it contains real slander and you should tread lightly. For example, "Which means that ticketmaster is purposefully delaying their efficiency in order to get people to purchase more expensive shipping times". This is the conclusion you came to but the company may be able to prove it has the…

I hope he doesn't change his wording. If Ticketmaster sues, it will draw more attention to all of this.

If the blogger is taking a risk (which I doubt is a significant one), I think he should be commended for it.

Re: Ticketmaster is a horrible company

#100

Post by notwhereyouare »

stoic wrote: post #81
peteforde wrote: post #66

Hey, first off: chillllll out. Choose your battles carefully. Ticketmaster is not a great company, but it's become a lot better than it used to be. Truth! Anyhow, you need to be aware that venues absolutely will charge a venue fee. Even purchasing tickets at my local club in Toronto from the front bar there is a 10% markup or $1 minimum, whatever is greater. You don't have to get tickets printed and mailed to you for…

They charge you to print your own tickets as well.

digital tickets though. I've never had an issue pulling up the ticket on my phone and letting them scan it
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